Stuck in Siberia
by MagicalJellyfish
Summary: Cassiopeia was found in the middle of the snowy wasteland of Siberia. She knows there is a way back to the US, but over time, she doesn't want to leave, because of him. OcxJacob AU where Lara and Trinity don't discover the divine source or Kitezh. Rated T for language. *Spoiler warning if you haven't finished the game* Rated M- violence, harsh language, & non-explicit adult stuff
1. Waking up

I woke up slowly, with a pounding headache. I didn't bother opening my eyes, knowing the light would only make my headache worse. The air around me was chilly but not quite freezing, probably because a fire was in the corner. My clothes consisted of thick pants, stockings, and long sleeve shirt, keeping me from feeling the cold.

A rustling noise made me open my eyes and look at the noise, a man. He had shaggy brown hair with a scruffy beard, a blue coat covered his shoulders and white pajama like pants on. He was facing an old stove that had a fire roaring, and couldn't see that I was awake. I watched him poke at the fire for a few moments until I started coughing loudly. He jumped and turned to look at me.

"Sorry," I squeaked out, slightly embarrassed that I disturbed the man.

"It's alright, I was wondering when you would wake up," He said gently, with an accent I couldn't quite place.

"How long have I been out for?" I asked as I sat up, pulling my legs up so they crisscrossed.

"When I found you, you were already unconscious, that was about three hours ago, what were you doing out there?" He asked me looking pretty worried about my situation.

"Out where? The last thing I remember I was in New York, walking to my parent's apartment," I told him, my brow stitching together.

"New York? I don't think that is anywhere near here," He said, handing me a bowl shaped cup.

"Where is here then?" I asked getting increasingly worried about my situation. He motioned for me to drink whatever was in the cup he handed me before he started to talk.

"You are in what they call Siberia, we are very isolated from every other type of people near this area because of our mountains," he explained. I nearly spit out my drink at the word 'Siberia'.

"That's halfway across the planet!" I exclaimed, now putting the cup down.

"Well then if you remember anything that would be helpful to finding out how you got here," He said calmly. I nodded and took a few breaths, trying to remember anything.

"Oh god!" I gasped, breathing heavily as I remember some of the events that led me here.

"Calm down, what is wrong?" He asked with genuine worry, putting a hand on my shoulder

"I remember, I was kidnapped, some guy picked me off the street and knocked me out. He was with other men, possibly smugglers, I remember them saying something about the fact that they were going to sell me as a sex slave to some man in Russia," I sighed, pulling my sleeves over my hands and put my hands on my face. I heard him sigh, then he patted my shoulder. I removed my hand and picked up the cup again to drink. I realized it was some type of tea from the odor and the warmth coming from the cup.

"What is your name?" He asked after I finished the tea.

"Cassiopeia, and yours?" I asked, placing the cup on the ground.

"Jacob," He smiled and stood up, offering me a hand up. I gladly accepted it and pulled myself off the ground and onto my feet.

"I'm just taking a wild guess, but you have a group of people somewhere else," I told him, wiping my hands on my pants. He let out a soft chuckle and nodded.

"Yes, but my people aren't the most trusting of newcomers," Jacob explained.

"And you wanted to see if you could trust a random woman you found in the snow," I said, looking down at my feet for a moment, making me realize I didn't have shoes on. Jacob noticed my realization and went to a table that was in the corner, picking up a pair of boots.

"Yes, you see one of my men found you and I wanted to see if you were trustworthy because I knew you were not going to survive in place, and we found these with you," He said as he handed me the pair of boots. I put on the boots on thinking over everything.

"But I haven't been awake long enough to show trustworthy qualities," I guessed. Jacob nodded and handed me a light gray coat, which I slipped.

"That is true, but I still would like to bring you to my people," He offered.

"I would like to meet them," I said simply, Jacob smiled and started to walk out the house. I followed behind, being met with a gust of freezing air.


	2. Not enough

We trudged through the frozen forest for what felt like days until we stopped at a hillside with an entrance.

"We are about to go through a tunnel that leads right through the mountain, you'll need to be careful once we're in there because the tunnel had not been as stable as it once was," Jacob told me before striking a flare and entering the tunnel. Again I followed after him, not wanted to be alone in this unfamiliar place.

When I entered I found that the tunnel was damp but warmer than the outside world, so I was glad to be in there. The tunnel was small as I walked, the sides were supported by random pieces of metal that were very rusted.

"How long have these tunnels been here?" I asked, trying to break the silence.

"A very long time," He said and I tried not to let out a sigh of disappointment. This guy is insanely cryptic, almost Yoda level. But I understood why he wouldn't want to tell me, I was some stranger he saved from freezing to death.

"What did you do before you were taken?" Jacob asked minutes later, his flare dying.

"I was an office worker, I put in pieces of information and did projects, it was severely boring," I told him as I squeezed through a vertical opening. He stopped ahead of me for a second and then lifted himself through a small horizontal wooden opening. I looked at him with wide eyes, oh god he expects me to go through that?!

He much of seen my alarmed look because he said "It's not as hard as it looks, just lift yourself through and I will catch you if you fall." I nodded slowly and took a deep breath before approaching the opening.

"Here goes nothing," I mumbled before grabbing the wood and forcing my muscles to push myself up to the ledge. I swung my legs up, and my body rolled off towards Jacob. Gladly, I landed on feet, not needing Jacob's help.

"You were right," I smiled as I brushed off my pants. He nodded and continued on his way. The end of the tunnel wasn't far from there, about 2 minutes later.

The wind greeted us with a frigid blast of air as we walked into a steaming, crumbly area.

"Again, you will want to be careful, this whole area is falling apart," He said walking to a set of stairs and jumping across a bit of missing space. I followed behind him, jumping across with all my might, it wasn't enough though. If it weren't for Jacob I would have cut up myself. He caught my arm and pulled me up. I ended face first into his chest, but we separated quickly as and we continued up the stairs.

"Thanks," I said looking away. We walked through the crumbling ruins and I almost made it to the top, but the ground started rumbling underneath me. I let a small shriek as I fell back to a forested area. Jacob looked back to see me falling, and looked like he was about to grab me, but I was already out of his reach. Before I fell too fast, I crashed into a tree, almost bouncing down the whole way down to the ground. When the ground met me, I found it was sloping down so I did my best to curl up into a ball and protect my neck. I never remember stopping, because blackness consumed me.


	3. The need to survive overrides morals

I woke up for the second time in probably 24 hours with no clue where I was. This time though, wasn't in a warm building, I was laying in a bed of snow and my body was chilled to the core. It was night out, but the stark white of the snow helped with visibility. Shivers wracked my body as I got up from the snow and onto my feet. My side ached along with my right knee, I kept my right arm around my side as I used the left arm to hold onto a tree limb. I looked around the area for any type shelter or sign of people around me. With no luck, I only saw the building I fell off.

"Jacob!" I yelled hoping he was in the area. After waiting several minutes I knew he wasn't around. So I trudged up the steep hill I had rolled down, using the trees to pull me up. I was huffing and puffing maybe 3 minutes later as I slowly made my way up the hill, when I looked back I saw that I had only gone about 200 feet up the hillside. A loud groan of frustration came from my mouth as I continued up the hill, inching my way up.

About an hour later I was getting close to the top when I heard the baying of wolves. This made me move quickly up the hill. They seemed to be on the move as I couldn't pinpoint where they were. During my shuffle up the hill, I spotted someone in the snow, since wolves were coming because safety in numbers and all that, I decided to shuffle over there. But once I reached the person, I found it was a dead body. It was frosted over and partially covered in snow, but the first thing I noticed there was a knife in the frozen body's hand. The howling of the wolves made me jump as I mulled over if I should take the knife or not. As the wolves got closer I decided to take it and double check for any other weapons. I found a revolver and a few extra bullets, which went into my pocket, and then booked it up the hill, ignoring the stabbing pain in my knee.

Within a minute, I had reached the wall of the building and decided to climb up the craggy wall. The ache in my knee was missing as I tried to get up and escape the wolves. Must be adrenaline, I though. I heard them below me as I tried to hold on with my numbing hands.

When I looked below me I found 3 gray wolves snarling at me. Fear and dread filled my system as my fingers started to lose grip on the wall. I let out a scream of pure terror as I fell back, landing in the snow right in front of the wolves. Another shriek came loose as I sat up and scuttled backwards. I pulled out the gun that I had found and pointed it at the wolves that surrounded me. They looked at the gun with curiosity but then almost immediately went back to snarling at me.

I clutched the gun tightly as the inch closer and I tried to move back more but was met with a wall. A constant stream of curses going through my head as I contemplated my chances of living after a wolf attack. I knew for a fact that the answer was slim to none unless Jacob showed up in the next few moment.

"God damn it!" I yelled, tears pricking at my eyes, knowing I had to kill the advancing wolves if I wanted to survive, but I didn't want to. But the wolves didn't care about my moral dilemma and the one on my right went to attack me.

A screamed ripped itself from my throat as the wolf sunk its teeth into my right calf. But seconds later a gunshot rang out and the wolf let go as it fell over, dead. I stared in disbelief at my hands as released the trigger and pulled back the hammer.

The next wolf came at me and my body worked on autopilot as I killed the wolf. I didn't wait for the other wolf to come as I pulled back the hammer again and shot it down.

Then there was silence, everything had in the forest had shut up and went into their hiding places, hoping they wouldn't be next. Seconds later I let out a sob as the adrenaline that was previously running through my body cut off and allowed me to feel the full force of the bite the wolf caused.

So I cried, for killing the wolves but mostly myself. But it didn't last long as saw the blood coming from my leg. I wasn't going to last long if I get it go like that, so I cut a strip off of my shirt, making a tourniquet to stop the blood flow. Once I was certain that the blood had stopped flowing, I got up, using the wall to stabilize myself and surveyed the area. A few feet ahead of me was a tree branch formed in the shape of a Y, looking like a perfect crutch, three dead wolves in front of me, and a crap ton of trees and snow everywhere. I went to the tree branch, hopping over until I could pick it up. This took a good amount of energy from me as I was leaning against the wall, panting. Though I stood up tall and hop-walked past the building as my mind was trying to tell me to sleep.

"Gotta stay awake," became my mantra as I hobbled along the hill, trying to remember the direction Jacob and I were headed before I fell.

I walked for what felt like years before the sky showed signs of waking up. The sky turned orange, pink, then finally light blue. The sun warmed my limbs softly as it rose. A sigh escaped my lips as I was no longer chilled to the bone. But not all my problems were solved with the rising of the sun. I stopped walking for a moment to breathe. My right leg had little to no feeling in it from the knee down and when I commanded my body to wiggle my toes, it disobeyed. At that point, I was afraid that I would never be able to use my right leg again.

"Cassiopeia," Someone said behind me in a gentle voice. I turned to see Jacob looking extremely worried and covered in snow. He came up next to me, on my right, and had me let go of the tree branch so he could pull my arm over his shoulder. Then he put his left arm around my waist and started walking. With his support, I was able to walk slightly.

"How'd you find me?" I asked after a few minutes.

"I heard the screams and gunshots. You left a noticeable trail in the snow before you faced the wolves, and then I was able to follow the trail of blood you are leaving behind," He explained.

"Thanks for coming to find me," I said softly, slumping against Jacob as my body refused to hold itself up. My eyes began to slide close as I was lifted up into his arms.

"Cassiopeia, I need you stay awake for a bit longer, we are almost there," He told me as I shivered, feeling like an ice cube.

"I'll try," I laughed, opening my eyes forcefully.

"How did you survive that fall?" He asked trying to keep me alert.

"I crashed into several trees on my way down and landed in some snow," I told him. A commotion was heard around us, like the sound of people.

"And the wolves?"

"I found a gun and a knife on a frozen dead person, and I shot them, but one of them bit me before I er killed it," I gulped. The sound of people got closer and I looked around, seeing several people in a clearing.

"Are you taking me to your people?" I asked, closing my eyes again.

"Yes, we are almost there," He said as I felt him walk faster. After a minute he stopped, telling me he was going to lay me down. As he said I was laid down on a cot and then I heard the ripping of cloth and the talking of people. I could feel someone untying the tourniquet and warm hands on my knee.

"It's alright now Cassiopeia," Jacob said. I took this as my cue relax, getting pulled into a world of darkness and warmth.


	4. What the hell?

At this point, I had gotten used to the passing out and waking up somewhere new. But as I floated through my state of unconsciousness, I felt warm all over and blips of light came through once and awhile, almost like stars.

When I did wake up, I was laying on the same cot I passed out on. Gladly, my eyes were not assaulted by bright light because it looked to be dusk. My body ached as I became more alert and the pain from the wolf bite came too, feeling like it had been crushed and stabbed at the same time. But the pain faded away. I tried not to think about it as I sat up and observed my surroundings. I was in a cabin like house with the bare essentials: a wood stove, the cot I was currently in, two wooden chairs that surrounded a wooden table, and a wooden shelf. On the table was a stack of clothes and a note on top of said clothes. There was a door too, it was closed, most likely to give me privacy. Then I looked down to find a splint around my right leg, the bandaging thicker just below my knee. It looked like I had broken my leg, but I knew the pain of breaking a bone and that pain wasn't there. So to test out this theory I put my legs on the floor and stood up. I clutched the cot as I moved to the table, walking carefully. My leg had light tinges of pain below my knee, but no feeling of breakage. The table was only a few feet from the bed so my shuffle wasn't very long.

Once I got to the table, I looked at the note on the pile of clothes. It had my name on it a beautiful script. So I picked it up and flipped the paper over to see more of the beautiful handwriting.

 _Cassiopeia, after you fell into unconsciousness, I cleaned up the bite on your leg and put the leg into a splint to immobilize the area around the bite. I have left a set of clothes just in case you wish to change._

 _Jacob_

"Okay," I breathed out as I put down the note and inspected my clothes. My pants were torn and bloody, my shirt was a combination of dirty and bloody. Seeing this made me uncomfortable, reminding me of the deaths I caused. Now I wanted to get out of these clothes as soon as possible.

I sat in one of the chairs, pulling the clothes closer and found that the clothes he set out were a gray long sleeve shirt and a dark blue pair of pants. Then I exchanged my dirty shirt for the gray one. The pants were a bit harder, because of the splint. I was able to slide off my pants and pull on the new ones without too much pain. After dealing with the pants, I found that my shoes had been taken off and put at the foot of the bed. I leaned over and plucked them up and put them on my feet. Then I shuffled to my feet and toward the door.

When I reached the door, pulling it open. The dimming light met me as I walked out of the house and into a large clearing that was surrounded by other houses like the one I was just in. To my left, a man is walking with some purpose toward one of the houses nearby. When we walked up to me I realized that he was walking toward me.

"You are to come with me," He said abruptly as he reached me, then turned to go back the way he came. I sighed and followed behind, walking weirdly.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked, grabbing the end of my sleeve.

"Jacob has asked me to watch you until you woke up, then bring you to him," He explained. I nodded and stayed quiet. As we walked I heard and saw other people, who stopped what they were doing to gawk at me. They all spoke in hushed whispers with the same accent and formality as Jacob and the man I was walking with, which made it easy to tell that these were Jacob's people.

Several minutes later, the man to stay where I was and walked over a large tented area. I looked around the area as I waited for the man to come back. In this area there were a few people milling around a fire that looked like it had tools. They didn't notice me as I walked over, looking curiously at the tools around the fire. The tools like smithing ones, an anvil, several hammers, and a trough of water. When I got closer I found several arrowheads lying around on a table next to the anvil.

Before I could look further, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I didn't have to turn much to see Jacob and the man I came with.

"Hi, sorry I was just looking at the anvil," I greeted him sheepishly.

"I understand," He smiled and picked up one of the arrowheads. "Do you know how to work a forge?" He asked, fiddling with the head.

"No, I just thought it was interesting," I explained as I looked at him.

"Ah alright, do you have a specific skill that I should know about?" He asked after placing the arrow back on the table.

"I used to do rock climbing, I was very good at it and I have really good vision and hearing," I told but looked down at my leg "But I can't climb with my leg like this."

"Walk with me," He said and began to walk down a path. With a confused look on my face, I followed him.

"Since you are injured and are unable to go home, you need to stay here with my people," He started to explain. "Everyone who lives here has some kind of role or job that they do to contribute to, from what you have told me out your skill set, once your leg as healed you could be a hunter or scout, but it might not before a while," He sighed.

"Well I can cook, does that help?" I asked as I used tree branches to keep balance.

"It does, you could help the other people we have in our kitchen, but it's a little late for that," He said, gesturing to the sky.

"Oh yeah, well I've been out cold for awhile," I chuckled.

"Yes but there seems to be no problem besides your leg," He said. A silence came up between us as we kept walking, probably where I woke up. I ran a hand through my hair and realized it was greasy. Man, I need a shower.

"Do you think do you know where I can wash up?" I asked him.

"Yes, I can get one of the others to bring you there," He offered.

"That would be great," I smiled. After that, we were quiet again.

About 10 minutes later Jacob asked a redheaded woman to take me somewhere, I couldn't hear all of what they said. The walk to wherever with this woman as extremely awkward, she didn't say anything, at all, she just lead me to a small river and left.

I sighed and sat on the ground. Then I pulled off my clothes until I was left with the bandage. It would be weird if it got wet, so I decided to unwrap it carefully. The first layer was easy to remove and roll up, but when I got to the I found it was really hard to get off.

"What the hell!" I yelled. MY leg had barely a sign of any injury, no wolf bite, just a sliver crescent scar below my knee. I touched it and it had no feeling of pain. What the hell is going on here?


	5. Quick thinker

_***Warning super? spoiler in this chapter. It deals with Jacob. If you still want this to be a surprise in the game, stop reading***_

After washing up like I said I was going to, I put my clothes back on and I returned to the village. Though I didn't go back to the place I woke up. I wanted, no, needed to find Jacob so he could explain this to me. The pain, the blood, the killing, the fear was all too real for me to dismiss as a nightmare. But how could a vicious bite and bloody bite turn into an old scar in few hours?

By now the sun had set and most people had gone into their homes, so I couldn't ask anyone to tell me where he might be. My leg was fine as I walked around, no pain, just little twinges here and there.

After a few minutes of wandering around in circles, I went uphill, hoping to come across someone awake. As I wandered around, it grew colder and I ended up sitting on a bench in front of a fire. There was no chance I was going to get sleep tonight, with this revelation of super healing wounds. I soon became mesmerized by the fire, looking at the constantly changing colors.

A set of footsteps came crunching by, when I looked over, I saw a brown-haired woman sitting on the other end of the bench. She gave me a polite smile as she rubbed her hands together.

"Hi," I greeted, not wanting to feel too awkward.

"Hello, I believe I have not seen you before," She said pleasantly.

"Yeah, Jacob brought me here after he found me passed out in the snow, I'm Cassiopeia," I told her.

"Oh, I'm Isabel, pleased to meet you," She told me. "What are you doing out here this late at night?" She asked, holding her hands close to the fire.

"Couldn't sleep," I told her. "What do you do here?" I inquired, trying to keep the conversation going.

"I work in the kitchen and at the forge, and you?" Isabel explained.

"Uh I don't know yet, Jacob didn't give me a job yet," I lied, knowing I could probably do the work of a scout, not a chef.

"Well, what are you good at?" She asked. Before I could answer Jacob came into my line of sight.

"Excuse me, Isabel, I have to talk to someone, it was a pleasure meeting you," I said hurriedly, getting up from the bench to walk over to Jacob.

"It was nice meeting you too!" I heard Isabel call after me. Jacob stopped walking once he saw me coming over. I saw him gaze down at my leg, but then back up at my face like nothing happened.

"Hello Cassiopeia, I suspected you'd still be up," He told me.

"Well after being unconscious on and off for two days, I think I've had enough sleep," I joked. This stole a smile from him, which in turn made me smile.

"I see you took of your bandages," He acknowledged.

"Yeahhh, I wanted to talk to you about that," I said with an uneasy smile. I pulled up my pant leg and showed him the silver scar.

"Why is this healed? It's been hours, not weeks unless I've been on drugs this whole time," I questioned.

"Well you have not been on any drugs, but this discussion is not one we should have out in the open, follow me," He said before walking onto a path. I followed behind him for several minutes until we reached a hill with a decorative stone building that had a style I recognized from an art history course I took in college.

"Is that what I think it is? Oh yes it is! That's byzantine architecture, I know this stuff or, at least, I feel like I should," I said suddenly, happy that some of my college education was useful.

"Yep, in the pediment over the doorway there are some icons, very byzantine," I excited about seeing things I actually knew about. My brain was rushing through my whole course.

"Wait but something's wrong, we're in Siberia, not anywhere near any other byzantine architecture," I noticed and I turned to face Jacob.

"Okay Jacob, there's out of place architecture and superhuman healing, I really hope it's not me but what's going on here?" I asked with a sigh.

"I am sorry, but I didn't think you would find out about this as quickly as you did," He said mysteriously. This only raised more questions as I put a look of confusion on my face.

"In ancient times, our prophet brought the divine source to this valley. My ancestors built Kitezh to protect it from the outside world," He explained

"And what is this divine source? And what was so special about the prophet?" I asked, taking my hand through my hair.

"It is an artifact from a time long forgotten, we believe it holds a fragment of god's soul. Legend tells that those who behold the source were granted immortality. And our prophet is the one who healed our sick and wounded" He said while looking around wistfully. I sighed, processing the story Jacob had told me. 'But how does that work in with the crazy healing?' I thought to myself. I connected the metaphorical lines and realized...

"You are one of the people who have beheld the source! The prophet in fact and you healed my leg," I spouted. Jacob didn't say a word, but he nodded. I stood there with my hands rubbing my eyes.

"Wow okay," I mumbled.

"Cassiopeia, I am still human, well save for the human ending," He told me as he put his hand on my shoulder. My hands dropped and I took a deep breath.

"I know, I can tell," I said and turned to face him. He gave me a gentle smile, which I returned, before my stomach started gurgling. This caused me to go into a fit of giggles and put my hand on my face.

"Sorry!" I got out as I tried to calm down.

"It's quite alright," I heard him say as he laughed softly.

"I guess that's my stomach telling me to find food," I told him.

"How about we go get some?" He offered me.

"Sounds great," I said before I followed him down the winding path we were on previously.


End file.
